Almost a New Beginning

Tomorrow at this very hour, I will be alone in my dorm at UIUC's FAR residence hall. So today is my last day at the town of Hinsdale. I thought I would be extremely excited about the upcoming change, but I can't help but feel a little bit nostalgic. I didn't think I would start missing this place of torture, extreme discipline, and the horrific boredom in this house. However, I did.

Yesterday was such a great day. I met with Priscilla Chao (JUJU), Emily Yao, Amanda Kang, Aaron Saballo, Julian Coltea, and Anna Hesley to watch a movie. Originally, we were going to see GI Joe, seeing that amazing trailer some time ago. However, the plan immediately changed as soon as we heard that Ponyo, the newest Miyazaki work, was released at the very day. Being an anime fanatic, and an extreme Miyazaki fan, I instinctively welcomed the change. Before I headed toward AMC, JUJU, Emily, and I dropped by Jingyuan Li's house to say good bye (well, only me saying goodbye). I think I am going to miss making fun of her a lot =[

Either way, the movie was...interesting, to say the very least. It was completely not expected. The graphics were not as amazing as the other Miyazakis, but the plot surpassed my expectations, by a big league. It had such a cute storyline....although the music at the end really, and literally, made me laugh out loud. It definitely has rewatch values ^_^

Anyways, I am going to leave with my brother in matter of 4 hours, or less. I will be posting again when I move into my dorm. Many loves, Hinsdale. I will never forget about you all!

TAF 2009: Let it Sprout!!

As a second year camper, there were some doubts and fears in my mind as I stepped onto the bus that was heading toward Manchester College. I feared that this year TAF has less to offer to me compare to last year. Boy was I dead wrong on that one.

Small Group

If I could describe my small group with one word, it would be "eccentric". No, that would be an understatement...BLAH it's simply too awesome to be defined by words =P
At first, our small group was leaning toward the "quite side", meaning there was clearly a lack of familiarity as well as communication. However, as more time was spent together, we eventually opened the windows to our hearts. Thanks to Bum's amazing questions after his lectures, we learned how to enjoy and take comforts in each others' presence. Group 3, the small group I was a part of, was consisted of Eddie Huang, Travis Overton, Peter Shaw, Harry Tsai, Olivia Schieber, Carrie Hsieh, Katherine (Pamina Lin), Alicia Shiue, Eric (don't know his last name) and Karen Lai. Oh, and me! ^_^
Interestingly enough, our small group included the only two Caucasians in youth, Olivia, Willis's girlfriend, and Travis, the half Taiwanese kid. Despite the possible cultural barrier, they fit in just like any other Asian campers. Gracefully enough, Olivia contributed greatly to group disses as well as chants, which made her a great asset to our small group. Travis, being a Pokémon fanatic, boldly suggested the theme of our small group with the idea of Bulbasaur, which saved a lot of brainstorming time. Hence, our small group was named Bulbasaur Stinky Tofu Evolution.

Speaker

I really loved the speaker this year. Bum Kim masterfully and carefully worded his speech in such an elegant way that I had not seen a single bobbing head throughout the whole week, which wasn't the case in ANY other lectures that I had attended in my life. This year, the theme was Ethics and Values. Bum, although Korean, could easily relate to the academic pressure as well as cultural expectations. And he showed it in his speech. His constant humors and touching stories had kept the speaker sessions one of the best times throughout the day. Yes, it even tops some TAF activities, believe it.
Among his many valuable lessons, I found the concept of sacrificial love the most meaningful of all. What is sacrificial love? Was it love among families? Was it the unconditional love? Honestly, this concept was rather confusing. However, I identified myself as one that had provided such love in the past in a relationship. However, it did not have a happy ending. I guess that was why such topic was especially captivating.
I especially loved his demonstrations with water and cups. He stated that in order to provide love, one's cup must be filled with love. If the cup was empty, then the person would attempt to fill it up with all sorts of bad stuff to prevent emptiness. It really made me wonder, how full was my cup prior to TAF this year? How full would it be after TAF? A lot of other things rushed into my mind as he performed this demonstration. It made me realize that it was important to provide love to those that were hurt while maintaining the level of fullness.

Roommate

So this year, I had the pleasure to room with Justin Wang, a veteran TAFer who actually graduated from the JH program and advanced to the Youth program just this year! Every night we would talk about schools and, of course, our TAF crushes. As a high school veteran, I gave all the advices I could in order to prepare him for his junior year, knowing that it will be his toughest year of high school. He's such a cool kid. I wish I had him in my high school...But to be honest, most of the time we were just chilling and talking about our ideal girls as well as our TAF crushes candidates (well, more so for him because I only have one girl in mind the whole time ^_^)....hehe...its a guy thing =P

Little Sib

Oh my god! Like seriously, OH MY GOD!!! Was it pure coincidence?! If it was, then O-M-G!!! This year, my little sib happened to be a former church member, Tiffany Teng. As acquainted as we were already, we actually had not seen each other at all for a whole year! Of course, being so familiar with each other, writing sib letters had been awesome. I most definitely enjoyed my time taunting/making fun of her for miscellaneous things....mostly about the huge water fights =P Then I also got to see my previous little sib: Kyleen!!!! Coincidentally, she was my TC's little sib! (Coincidence?)She had some mad skills for Diabolos, also known as Chinese yo-yos. Of course, I am not surprised by that because she was taught by none other than the awesome Mark Chen!

TAF Night Performances

I had mixed feelings about this special night on Saturday. Mostly because I knew that TAF had finally come to an end. However, that did not stop me from enjoying this wonderful night! It really touched my heart to see the effects of TAF showing on everyone on that night. Juniors putting on the biggest smiles they could possibly make during their swing choir and choir; the Junior High campers were full of youthful energies as always; and the Youth campers showed their maturity via the expression of music. However, the most special thing about TAF night was the fact that I got the chance to perform with Mark Chen once again. It was really something special. Not because we did everything on the spot, but because we worked together in our old high school crew Midnight Rave. I guess it brought back some memories...blah it's too complicated to explain!

FINAL THOUGHTS

TAF '09 means a lot to me. Not only did it solidify my determination to come back every year, it also taught me what I need to do to as a Christian and as an individual that has the capability to make a difference in someone's life. This past week is TAFabulous!!

Wow, it sure has been long!

Oh man! I have completely forgotten about the existence of this blog!! Oh man oh man! I will never forgive myself now...this deserves about 1000 push ups and 1000 pull ups and 2000 sit ups along with 100 miles....

yeah right....

Well, where should I begin with this reminiscing post? Hmm...I guess for starters, I have successfully enrolled University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I am rather excited for my college career to start! The thought of meeting new people and having a whole new learning experience (which is awesome now because it has a blend taste of freedom).

At the day of my graduation of high school on May 28th, it was a moody day. Don't get me wrong when I say "moody". I absolutely loved that day. Cloudy weather, but not too hot; nostalgic, yet a sense of accomplishments. To be honest, high school really had a profound experience in shaping me as an individual. So on that very day, I was half happy that I will finally be able to escape such academic torture, and half sad that I was leaving everything I knew behind. To be honest, I couldn't describe my actual feeling. It was just so...mixed up.

I will definitely write more as time goes by. But currently I am enjoying my short-lived vacation in Taiwan. A lot more to come!

Last Pep Rally Performance on 3/13/09

At last, our final massive event is over. This pep rally performance is even bigger than ethnic fair because of the number of audience. Because the pep rally is placed behind 8th period, every students and teachers are obligated to attend. To be exact, this "small" performance is even bigger than the Variety Show in that sense!

With only a week worth of preparation, the group did quite well. Although the routine itself has nothing outstanding, it is not a shabby routine either. If we had more time to prepare for this event, the breakdancing routine could trump even that which we used in the Variety Show.

I myself probably committed the worst mistake ever. On this very important performance, I noticed that my shoe strings on my left shoe were untied. With my solo coming up, which involves an all out flare, I could not risk my shoe flying out in the middle of the performance. Therefore, in order to prevent that, I did a half-assed flare. Now I am kind of regretting that decision, but I believe that was the right thing to do. Ah well...

Now I believe we still have about two or three performances left. Ethnic fair, AIDES run, and Dance Company. I wonder how our year is gonna end...With the tryout for Ethnic Fair coming up on Friday and we have absolutely 0% done for that show. I guess we will just recycle the old routine with some weapon demonstration. Hopefully all will go well.

Stomach Flu

So I have gotten pretty darn sick for the past two days. At first, I thought it was just some minor cold that was causing me to feel extremely tired. But late midnight I start to vomit once every hour or so. For the rest of the day, I literally felt like shit.

but I am feeling slightly better. Hopefully this flu will die down tomorrow...because I have two projects that are due sometimes next week =P

It has been a while...

It really has been a long time since I last write a blog post. It's not because I am too busy to write one, but rather it's because I am lacking some interesting things to even attempt one. But it's almost the end of the month, so I decided to write one regardless.

So, one thing was unexpected. Our Midnight Rave T-shirts are selling a lot better than I have originally anticipated. One of our member, Kevin Qiu, designed the shirt. With the original price set at 20 dollars each, I often receive complaints about the price. However, with a one dollar profit per shirt at 20 bucks a piece, it is really hard to lower it even further. However, with much negotiation, the price of the shirt has been lowered to 15 dollars each. Since then, we have about 20 orders.

Apparently Midnight Rave is far from being done for the school year. We have about three performances left, maybe four if we are eligible to compete in a coming up breakdancing competition in March in a random school. With the coming up pep rally, the group is now making another round of effort to perfect our techniques and mentalities. Last time ended in a disaster, so we hope to not have any mishap occurs this time around. Thankfully, we r only dancing this time. So no glowsticks are going to be cracked.

With ethnic fair being our last official performance, the group is also making an effort to further expand our experiences with weapons. We plan to make a legitimate choreographed fight scene, but that is only doable if we accustom ourselves with the pain and experiences required. So this is another thing to look forward to.

Now, onto something more academic. I have heard from Urbana Champaign and I have been accepted. However, it is not the major which I intended to study in college. With that being said, I am having some thoughts about going there. Currently, my choice may be to go to Purdue for one year and if I still want to go to U of I, I will transfer to the school. I really don't know what to make out of it. But I really feel like I could've done a lot better than this. Ah well, just gotta wait to hear from other schools like Cornell now.

As the end of the year starts to approach, I can't help but ponders on my high school career. There are things that I cherish; there are things that I regret; there are things that I wish to remember vividly forever; and there are things that I wish to forget. This has really been a roller coaster ride. It saddens me that it's going to end in 3 months of time, but I am also excited to embrace the brand new chapter of my life: College.

Midnight Rave: Final Mix

So this past Wednesday and Thursday were the final appearances of Midnight Rave in the Hinsdale Central Variety Show. Because 6 out of 8 members this year are seniors ( myself included ) , we came to the conclusion that the six-years tradition may have come to a conclusion. However, with two outstanding freshman and an additional junior that is joining shortly after the variety show, the future of Midnight Rave seems bright.

This year's act name is called Midnight Rave: Final Mix. I am pretty sure all the hardcore gamers such as myself can guess the origin of such title with immense accuracy. Yes, the inspiration comes from one of my all-time favorite RPG series known as Kingdom Hearts.



Above is our Wednesday's performance. This year, it seems like Day 1 was actually better than Day 2. Maybe it's because it's senior night, or maybe it's because of the primary adrenaline rush that we felt during the performance. But ah well, as long as the audience liked it =)

The act this year can be broken down into three parts: breakdancing, popping, and raving.

Breakdancing, first introduced by David Wu from the first generation, has been a milestone for the group. With tremendous difficulty to practice with safety, this area is by far the hardest to improve. However, with Alex Kim's guidance and experience, the group manages to improve this weakness with unbelievable speed. In no time, this becomes one of our best selling points. Needless to say, Alex Kim is also the breakdancing choreographer of the group.

Popping, lead by Aaron Saballo, is one area which almost none of the members of the group is able to touch. With exceptions of Kevin Qiu and arguably Alex Kim, the trio manages to pull out a satisfying routine at the last minute to impress the audience. It seems like only the formation and the sequence of solos are planned for the variety show. However, with Aaron Saballo's extraordinary fluidity, this remains one of the most unbelievable feat ever done by Midnight Rave.

Raving, the most anticipating part of the group, was made famous by Alex Sun from the first generation. To be exact, the "raving" which Hinsdale Central refers to is actually known as "glowstringing". It was a type of dance which propers during the 80's and 90's in clubs. With Alex Sun's graduation in 2008, the group was dismayed due to the clear lack of knowledge in the area. Attempted to keep the group true to its name, I picked up the pace and learned several new moves on my own, which ultimately led to my responsibility as this year's raving coordinator. The goal was to make up the lack of knowledge about the art with fascinating patterns and a "surprise" to put a beautiful period mark in our career in the variety show.

As mentioned, 6 out of 8 of us are graduating this year. Although we feel like Midnight Rave may be able to survive for years to come, we doubt its capability to meet or surpass the expectations which we set this year. Although this may sound selfish, but it may be for the best to end the group this year. If the three remaining members are interested enough to keep the tradition going, they can always start a new crew with a new name. After all, it's not the name that counts, its the fact that there are still somebody in Hinsdale Central willing to share their passion for hitting the beats.

Finally, a SSS!

At last, the brutal finals are done! Therefore, I am officially a SSS (second semester Senior)~ Surprisingly, this is by far my best finals so far!It was surprising because it definitely did not feel that good when I was taking it...but I guess things are always better than they seem ^_^

With that done, now I can squeeze in a lot of times to do what I must do within the next few hours: coming up with a satisfying raving routine and music for Midnight Rave's coming up performance in the Hinsdale Central Variety Show 2K9. Since the end of the show last year, we have been talking about how we want to make this coming up variety show our absolute best because it is our final year. However, with college applications and a lot of other senior stuff, we were unable to invest enough time to make it happen. Really, I have been really stressed about this coming up performance because I really want to make it the one performance that will have lasting impressions to the rest of the school.

With that been said, this second semester really is something to look forward to.

A Stressful Week

With finals scheduled next week, and the Variety Show soon after, It has been extremely stressful week. And many things have turn for the worse, if it's even possible. I can only hope that things will resolve before graduation.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert on 1/3/09

To begin the new year, I went to the concert of the infamous Trans-Siberian Orchestra Concert. Not exactly familiar with the group, I joined my friend Julian Coltea along with his girlfriend, Anna Hesley, to have a musical explosion. We stop by Oakbrook shopping mall to pick up some food to fulfill our hungry souls. To our surprise, we met Li Cai along with 3 other friends. To me, that was a good sign for the what's to come.

Without too much trouble, we arrived at Allstate Arena. The place was PACKED. I was afraid that we wouldn't be able to get a parking spot. But thanks to the massive area of the place, parking was like a walk in a park. We quickly situated ourselves for the concert by grabbing a quick bite of this pebbly ice cream...it was quite tastey...

The concert began with astonishing amount of fireworks and laser-like lighting effects. The musicians exploded from their seats and played the violin violently as if they are beating up some poor children with impunity. The guitarist showed their expertise on the matter by demonstrating a few killer solo's that would be considered as inhuman achievement in Guitar Hero. To end the concert, various colors of flames, fireworks, and flying platforms were all utilized. It was cacophonically fantastic.

This is the first concert that I attended. I had quite a nice experience with the idea. Looking forward to more in the distant future =)

Game Review #5 - Fantasy Tennis Online

I would have never come across this game if not for the excessive amount of advertisement of this game on its release over the summer on TV in Taiwan. What attracted me at first was not the game play. Rather, it was the atmosphere established by its background music. Amused, I immediately googled the game and set out to experience its world. It was then I discovered an epic game of epic proportion.

Trust me, I am definitely not a sports game type of gamer. In fact, I usually find those kind of games somewhat pointless. However, this game completely changed my perspective on the matter. Fantasy Tennis Online offers two type of game play: Normal mode and Battle mode.



In normal mode, one would play it just like a normal tennis match. But then you would ask: Why is it called "fantasy" then? Well, the answer lies in the mechanics of the game. In normal mode, one would not experience the "fantasy" part of the game as much as one would in Battle mode. However, the mere thrill of using or defending against the SS shots ( available by using special in game rackets which players can buy when players save up enough in game money from playing ) is exciting on many levels. Below are the current known SS shots available in game:

Power Shot - ball travels at 2x the speed.

Eagle Shot - extremely fast lob.

Snake Shot - ball travels in "S" pattern.

Mole Shot - My personal favorite, the ball goes underground and pops up near the end of the court.

Dragon Shot - ball travels in such a way that it resembles a dragon ascending.

Return Curve Shot - Defensive shot, returns the ball from anywhere on the court and saves it by returning it in a curvy pattern.

Return Straight Shot - Defensive shot, returns the ball from anywhere on the court and saves it by returning it to midcourt.

( On a side note, there are two types of SS shot, offensive and defensive. Offensive shot can only be used when a players are within the hitting range of the ball. Defensive shot, on the other hand, can be used anywhere and anytime as long as the ball is on the player side of the court. Hence the name, defensive shot. )

Some racket may have one or two of the above mentioned special shots. However, most racket with two would require real money to obtain. However, having two special shots doesn't necessary give a better advantage. What really matters is the skill level of the game players. If one knows the shot very well, one can fend off anything. Players can purchase rackets in the in-game game shop as well as other avatar items to customize their own characters. Most items will provide stats bonus. Stats?! YES!!! This game isn't just your average sport game! Each character have stats which can be improved by leveling your character or utilizing the items' bonuses!



LEVEL?!?! WHAT??!?! That's right! Fantasy Tennis Online is a combination of sports game and RPG. There actually is a storyline in the game to help players advance the story. Players will gain money and experience regardless of win or lose per game. The amount gained also depends on the players' performances. As character advance a level, it will gain an ability point which can be allocated to enhance a stat.

In the beginning, players can choose between one of the two beginning characters: Nikki and Lunlun. To simply put, these two are very balanced and are basically good at everything. As players eventually save up enough money, one can purchase one of the 4 specialized characters.

Are stats really that important? YES!! ESPECIALLY IN BATTLE MODE! Battle mode is the purpose for the word "fantasy". In battle mode, players do not obtain victory by simply winning points. In fact, there is no points in the game. In place of it, there are the players' HP bars. When one side scores, the other side will suffer hell flame damage for a set amount of HP. Players can also decrease opponents' HP by obtaining crystals during the battle and use the provided items such as homing soul missles, mines, flame balls, blizzard storm, or even turn opponents into CHICKEN so they can't return the ball for one turn!

One can also choose to play Battle mode against a npc. That is known as the GUARDIAN mode. The first 4 maps' guardians are fairly simple. However, anything after that is nearly impossible to solo without a team of experienced players. However, it IS doable, just will cost a lot of game money. Above is a video of the Guardian mode battle, just a little taste of what it is like!

This is my evaluation of the game.Keep in mind this is out of 5 stars, with 5 being the best.

Rating: *****
Extremely entertaining game. Never gets old.

Grinding: ****
There really is no grinding in this game. If you really want me to name one, I guess that would be the need to level. Items have level requirement too. Hence, players would feel the urge to play the games in order to level faster. But is that really grinding? I call that playing!

Fun: *****
Really really fun game. Every match I play, I experience something unexpected. This game really keeps me on top of my toes. However, there is a downside. The server in the US does not exist. Hence, if you play now, it will automatically link you to the EUROPEAN server. Hence, you don't really see a lot of players on because it's working day light for them. You don't really see a lot of people that can speak English very well either. But hey, let the game do the talking!

End of the Year 2008 Review

Another year has ended.
Another year of my life has passed.
Another year full of sorrow and joy is experienced.
Another year arrived.
Another year of wisdom under my belt.
A new year, a new beginning.

That basically summed up my thoughts on this particular year. Looking back, this year really has helped me grow as an individual. Through several mental trials, I have strengthened both mentally and physically. I honestly feel like I can face anything and I won't shatter into pieces.

College applications are completed a while ago. I was quite surprised for accomplishing such feat that early. Usually, I would procrastinate until the very last minute before I switched to WORK MAX gear and pump out completed works like a maniac. However, I got everything done before the month of December, which is quite nice. Props to the new goal-oriented self.

School work is actually going pretty well too. Loaded with AP classes, I expected this year's workload to surpass the previous year. To my surprise, however, the workload is nowhere near as intense as junior year's. Probably because I don't have to read and memorize all those miscellaneous facts for AP US or bust my brain open trying to understand Physics. Looking back, I feel bad for those juniors that I know...but hey! just pull through the next 6 months and the rest will be a smooth ride!

Mentally, though, I feel like there is a lot of room for improvement. This past year had provided a lot of mental challenges which dealt several fatal blows to my emotional state. It was really hard to give it in one piece, but I somehow managed. With the end of high school approaching, I really wish that I can start a lot of things anew and piece my mind together before I face any other mental challenge. Some of the things still hurt a lot, but I guess what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger eh?

With the finals approaching, it is REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to squeeze in time for the variety show. Currently, we are REALLY screwed, because our routine is not complete and we don't have sufficient time to perfect it before the variety show. I can only pray to God to lend us his power during the performance to bring the best experience to the both the audience and ourselves. Really, God, save us.

My team and I also earned top 8 placement in the recent Nationals. Really, it was a fun experience. Although somewhat painful to the bodies and stressful, it was really a lot of fun. I want to thank you all for making it possible.

Basically that's about it. This past year had been wonderful, really, and contributed greatly to who I am as an individual. I feel like I have matured a lot and am no longer the childish me a year ago. I feel like I have finally raised the tolerance level of my body in many aspects ( maybe not a good thing, but still it is a good thing in a lot of ways). I want to thank you all who is a part of my life in the year for making it the way it was. Thank you all and Happy New Year!!